📚 Five Golden Rings by K.L. Brady 📚

Girl trips over Boy…and Boy falls for Girl.
Kristy fell out of love with Christmas in D.C. when her father died three years ago. But this Christmas is different now that she’s engaged to Zach. She’s ready to embrace the spirit of the season again, at least until she catches Zach with another woman on her way to the National Tree Lighting. She confronts him and runs out of her nightmare, but arrives at Presidential Park just in time to trip over a dream…

A.J. Dawson is back home in D.C. after a whirlwind global music tour. All he wants is to celebrate a quiet, traditional D.C. Christmas with his socialite almost-fiancée, Sabrina, but she’s got different ideas—A.J. serving at her beck-and-call, hanging on her arm at high-class parties, while ignoring his every wish, except one. Fed up, he’s determined to enjoy the season his way and makes his way to the National Tree Lighting, a moment too late to get in before the gates closed, but just in time to fall for the right girl…

When they are unexpectedly parted with only each other’s first name, can a Missed Connection ad and a little Christmas magic bring them back together?

Two lonely strangers. One unforgettable date. Five golden rings.

One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to meeee….

For Kristie, Christmas has always been a special time of the year, up until three years ago. However this year Kristie tells herself it’ll be different. With her fiance by her side, she hopes that this year’s Christmas will be one to remember.

But in one failed swoop, all her dreams of Christmas joy come crashing down. Will Kristie find her ever after or is all lost?

Mega superstar A.J. Dawson is tired of the spotlight, spending time with his fiance all he wants is a traditional Christmas. However getting engaged to his socialite girlfriend, Sabrina turns out to a disaster waiting to happen. Finally giving up all hope, A.J. sets off to the National tree lighting alone.

Do Christmas miracles still happen? Will two Chrismas traditionalist find their ever after? Five Golden Rings give the true essence and love of the holiday season. I found this story engaging and joyful. K.L. Brady made characters you’d fall in love with, root for and some you’d even wish would drop dead. Overall I give this book 4 stars.

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What we’re reading this week!

“Smart and heartfelt and highly recommended.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

The inspiration for the highly anticipated 13-part TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey, directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma), and starring Rutina Wesley (True Blood) and Greg Vaughan, premiering September 6th on OWN.

Readers, booksellers, and critics alike are embracing Queen Sugar and cheering for its heroine, Charley Bordelon, an African American woman and single mother struggling to build a new life amid the complexities of the contemporary South.

When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart.

“Like a slow, steady bass line, Sil Lai viscerally draws you into her aching journey to find her place in the world.”

—NILE RODGERS, Grammy award–winning composer, producer, cofounding member of CHIC, and author of Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny

From her humble beginnings in a white, lower-middle-class family to a career in modeling that propelled her into the upper echelons of New York City nightlife, Sil Lai Abrams shares her unique and exquisitely wrought account of a woman’s journey toward self-love and acceptance in a family that sought to deny her black heritage.

Author and activist Sil Lai Abrams was born to a Chinese immigrant mother and a white American father. At the age of five, her family was ripped apart by a divorce that would erase her mother from her life. In the wake of her absence, Abrams was left alone to grieve her mother’s disappearance and reconcile the growing realization that there was truly something different about her from the rest of her family members.

She was the only one in her family with a tousle of wild curls and brown skin. As a convenient lie, based in part on the desire to raise his children in a race-neutral household, her father would explain that her skin was darker than the rest of the family because she was born in Hawaii. At the age of fourteen, the man she thought was her birth father made the bombshell revelation that Abrams was not his biological child: that, in fact, she was the daughter of a man of African descent who didn’t know of her existence.

This shocking news would take her down a painful road to forge an authentic ethnic identity in spite of the overt bigotry in her community and her own internalized racism and self-hatred. A teenage runaway and high school dropout, Abrams would struggle with single parenthood, depression, abuse, and an alcohol addiction that nearly destroyed her. Eventually, she would begin a path to healing that helped her leave behind the shame over her birthright and move toward a celebration of her blackness.

In Black Lotus, Abrams invites readers along on her unpredictable odyssey filled with extreme highs and lows as she reassembles her psyche by sifting through the broken fragments of her family’s past. Her story will provoke readers to reexamine everything they think they know about racial identity while affirming the ability of the human spirit to triumph over tragedy. Black Lotus shines a light on the transformative power of self-actualization, personal accountability, and the importance of living authentically and unapologetically in spite of family or societal opposition.

REVIEW:

I was sent this book for an honest review.

I’m not very big on memoir’s of people I’ve never heard of, but Sil Lai Abrams, tells a story that touches the heart and pulls at the heartstrings. There are moments you want to reach out and give the child and hug and high five the woman she grew into regardless of the circumstances. Abrams journey through racial discovery, an absentee mother, and emotionless father makes the book less about the racial side of things and more about her traumatic childhood. Yet even with everything she endured, she became a woman unapologetic about whom she is and her life.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.

First let me start by saying, I’ve seen this book many times, and not being one for biographies and memoirs too much, I passed it by. That is until I started seeing it again. I read the synopsis and was intrigued so much I went and purchased a copy on Amazon. Nothing prepared me for what was between the pages of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

A black woman in the 1950’s goes to John Hopkins hospital, which at that time was only hospital in the area to service coloreds. Feeling a knot in her stomach Henrietta Lacks didn’t know what to expect, she just knew she wanted to have more children. The series of events that take place after that first visit to John’s Hopkin’s changed not only the life of Henrietta Lacks, the Lacks children and family but also it changed the world.

In 1988, in a biology class, Rebecca Skoot first learns the name, Henrietta Lacks. That name would be the catalyst to change the life of Rebecca Skoot and forever bind her to the lives of the descendants of the woman scientist only call HeLa.

For more than a decade, the author along with the daughter of Henrietta Lacks, Deborah set off on a journey to learn the truth. The truth in this instance is what really happened to Henrietta Lacks and how her cells came to live forever.

Although this book is scientific in nature the average layman can read it and come to an understanding of the circumstances, life and socioeconomic culture of the time. This author has done an amazing job of bringing to light the events that occurred to render HeLa cells a multimillion dollar industry.

There are so many things to discuss concerning this book. This book should be a must-read for all.

📚 Rose Gold by Walter Mosley 📚

In this new mystery set in the Patty Hearst era of radical black nationalism and political abductions, a black ex-boxer self-named Uhuru Nolica, the leader of a revolutionary cell called Scorched Earth, has kidnapped Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a weapons manufacturer, from her dorm at UC Santa Barbara. If they don’t receive the money, weapons, and apology they demand, “Rose Gold” will die—horribly and publicly. So the FBI, the State Department, and the LAPD turn to Easy Rawlins, the one man who can cross the necessary borders to resolve this dangerous standoff. With twelve previous adventures since 1990, Easy Rawlins is one of the small handful of private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called immortal. Rose Gold continues his ongoing and unique achievement in combining the mystery/PI genre form with a rich social history of postwar Los Angeles—and not just the black parts of that sprawling city.

Easy’s back! After a near death experience, Easy Rawlins returns to the P.I. scene.Set in the 1960’s with hippies and drugs and radical life, Rosemary Goldsmith has been kidnapped. Roger Fisk contacts Easy to help with the search, with some reluctance Rawlins takes on the job of finding Rose Gold.

As with most Mosley novels, the plot moves forward with several intense subplots that move the prose along smoothly. A black boxer is accused of various crimes, a child is stolen and romantic obsessions occur. However, none of that deters Mosely to get to the bottom of what happened to Rose Gold.

Walter Mosley is one of my favorite authors, his descriptive language, and vivid prose brings to life an era long since past. The Easy Rawlins series is one that will live on for eternity. I highly recommend.

🎭 Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues 🎭

Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues is a poetry collection consisting of 65 poems. The poems are separated into 11 distinct sections that tell their own story while still fitting into the overall story of the collection. Although not limited to African American influences and content, the collection is very much inspired by the work of African American poets and writers like Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass and from the black cultural, social, and artistic revival that took place during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues is about encapsulating the Harlem Renaissance state of mind and encouraging young black minds to express themselves and “catch a glimmer of their own beauty” as Langston Hughes urged his young black contemporaries to do in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926), albeit with modern flair. The creative license that black artists had to express themselves and their art during the Harlem Renaissance is the blueprint for the poetry and artistic expression in the collection. Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues is rooted in a modern sense of black cultural, social, and artistic rebirth while paying homage to the artistic foundation laid by the great pioneers of the past.

REVIEW:

It’s not often I’m sent a book that pulls me in right away. Usually, there is a waiting period on reviews, especially now with all the things I have going on. But I received this book for review on Monday, I flipped through it and put it on the shelf with the others. And every time I passed that shelf it called out to me. I’d read a page and put it back I did this half the day and night. Until this afternoon, I just seized it and dove straight in.

More often than not, poetry has to be felt by the reader. It has to touch something within them for them grasp the poet’s intention. Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues is that kinda book.

There are several pieces that I enjoyed and below are three that stuck with me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A native of South Florida, Julius Jamaal McLean is an African American writer, poet, and creator striving to encourage, influence, and represent the voice of young artists. Inspired by the work and creativity of African American writers like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, his debut poetry book Harlem Nights and Footstep Blues evolved organically from a desire to create something relatable, impactful, and relevant to modern social issues and culture. Julius’ poetry is a way for him to speak from the perspective of those from his demographic who are not given the opportunity to speak for themselves often. His desire is for the sound of his own voice to ignite the passion within those of his generation and motivate them to express themselves in the same manner.

📚 I love him…Anyway 2 📚

Tears coursed down Melinda’s face as the doctor’s words resonated inside her. Jeremy stood beside the hospital bed holding her hand is if someone shot him.
“I am so sorry Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, I am so sorry, last week everything seemed fine. The only thing I can offer is perhaps something happened with the fetus…” the doctor said. Melinda turned her tear stained face to look into the doctor’s eyes.
“Fetus? Doctor, I am eight months pregnant. I didn’t lose a fetus; I lost a baby, a baby who if he had been born would have been viable. My baby is dead inside me and you need to keep the platitudes and deliver him so I can grieve.”
Jeremy clutched her hands tighter, unable to speak and glanced at his mother, Marva and Melinda’s mother, Alicia who had flown in from Miami to find out hours later her grandchild passed.
The doctor nodded, telling them they were taking Melinda to surgery. Jeremy kissed her gently, telling her he loved her before walking out behind his mother and mother in law.
The three of them sat quietly in the waiting room unable to offer words of comfort to the other. Everything happened so quickly. Alicia arrived, they were planning dinner and a shower and suddenly Melinda didn’t feel well and was cramping. The doctor told them to come to the hospital and it was discovered their child was no longer alive. Jeremy felt as if something in him died also.
¥¥¥¥¥
“Hey.” Jeremy said when Melinda’s eyes opened.
She had been under general anesthesia and was in recovery. She touched her belly and Jeremy flinched. The pain on her face matched his internal anguish. He could not imagine how she must feel having carried their child.
“Where is he?”
“Your dad isn’t here, your mom is with mom; they are getting food in the cafeteria.”
“No, I mean the baby?”
“They have him, I mean he is in the…” He was unable to say morgue.
“I want to have a proper funeral,” Melinda said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive and when that is done, I think we need to discuss this marriage.”
Jeremy felt as if she had punched him. “What about it? Things have been good,” he murmured.
“We need to discuss if it is viable or if like our son, it is gone.” Turning away, she closed her eyes, leaving Jeremy unsure what to say.
There had been some struggles but he thought they were past those and settled into a routine, preparing for the baby. He dropped down in the chair next to her.

REVIEW:

When my life is in disarray my reading suffers. This last past month my reading suffered a lot. However, Jeremy and Melinda brought me out of my current slump.

The second book in the series is a prelude of sorts. It starts off with Melinda and Jeremy facing the tragic event of losing their first born child. That in itself is hard enough but the challenges their marriage will face doesn’t stop there.

Melinda has been harboring a secret from Jeremy, secrets that leave him wondering, who did he marry. The aftermath that follows the loss of her child, sends Melinda into several stages. Her jealousy of Florence increases, making the friends, now frienemies. Yet while everyone is focused on Melinda’s pain and suffering most seem to forget about Jeremy and his pain. Losing a child is hard for any parent and being a man Jeremy had to place his feelings on hold to deal with those of his wife.

This author is no stranger to tackling issues that plague the community as a whole. In I love him…Anway II: Jeremy and Melinda deal with many of those issues. Covering up the ugly with a pretty bandage doesn’t erase it nor heal it. Melinda and Jeremy learn this lesson the hard way. Will their marriage survive? Grab your copy and find out.